Staff Reporter :
“Tk. 3 to 5 lakh are paid as bribe during the recruitment of doctors who are recruited on ad-hoc basis. The health officials pay Tk. 5 to 10 lakh for being transferred to Dhaka or adjoining areas, while the doctors pay 1 to 2 lakh for transfer to Dhaka from upazilas. The doctors and employees also pay Tk 50,000 to 1 lakh to get transferred to an upazila town from remote areas. Even Tk 10 lakh are also exchanged in bribe in the health sector.”
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has found the allegations of the corruption and irregularities in the health sector. According to a survey of the Berlin-based watchdog, the health sector is being affected by corruption of the doctors, concerned officials and employees.
The survey report under the title “Challenges of Good Governance in Health Sector and Way Out” was revealed at a press conference at a hotel in the city on Thursday. TIB’s programme manager (research and policy) Taslima Akhter read out the synopsis of the survey, while its executive director Dr Iftekharuzzaman and other officials attended the press conference. Taslima Akhter in the synopsis said that the doctors, health officials and employees bribe up to Tk 10 lakh to health officials on appointment, transfers and promotion purposes. The TIB interviewed doctors, employees and officials between November 2013 and August 2014 to conduct the survey, she said. According to the survey report, the ruling Awami League in its last tenure recruited more than 4,500 doctors on ad-hoc basis. The TIB, however, did not specify how many doctors paid money to get jobs.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman said that they would not give any specific names. “It is not our mandate. It is a qualitative report that we put forward for consideration and necessary actions”, he added. He also said that the health sector had several achievements but also had some limiting factors, like graft, which curbed the standard of healthcare in the country. The TIB said that lack of good governance, implementation of laws are the barrier for removing corruption and irregularities from health sector.
About the private healthcare services, the TIB said that the doctors have agreements with diagnostic centres and enjoy 30 to 50 percent commission for referring the patients to a particular diagnostic centre. “The brokers in the middle get 10-30 percent commission.”
Many diagnostic centres use names of pathologists to deliver a report despite having no staff pathologists of their own, the TIB said. According to the TIB, a number of doctors, not even recognised by the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council, are practicing across the country and catering healthcare services to the public. It recommended 17 points to rectify the problems in the health sector. The recommendations include making public a data-base of doctors with their degrees and to provide proper housing facilities for doctors at their rural workstations to retain them in the post. The TIB also urged for updating the laws related to the healthcare service and its enforcement.
